OSCE announces that confidence- and security-building agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina will end in September 2004

VIENNA, 23 June 2004 - The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office for Articles II and IV, General Claudio Zappulla, announced today that the Agreement on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina will end in September.

The decision to terminate the Agreement was taken last week in Vienna at a meeting of representatives of the parties to the Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and its two Entities, the BiH Federation and the Republika Srpska, at which they decided that, as a result of extensive reforms in the country, the Agreement could be suspended.

These reforms included the creation of a Ministry of Defence and the appointment of a Minister for Defence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the adoption of a new law on defence and the generally high level of confidence, openness, and trust that reigned between the armed forces of the country's two entities.

"To conclude the implementation of the Agreement is a milestone for the ongoing reconciliation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as for the country's efforts for full European and Euro-Atlantic integration," General Zappulla said.

After an implementation period of almost eight years, the Agreement on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be formally suspended at a meeting to be held in September in the country's capital, Sarajevo.

Annex 1-B of the 1995 General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Peace Accords) mandates the OSCE to help elaborate and implement three distinct agreements:

- an Agreement on confidence- and security-building measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Article II)

- an Agreement on measures for sub-regional arms control (Article IV, with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as parties); and

- a regional arms control agreement applicable "in and around the former Yugoslavia" (Article V), which was finalized as the single remaining aspect of the Dayton Peace Accords in July 2001.